Cambridge Analytica’s Alexander Nix to appear before MPs on 6 June

Boss of Cambridge Analytica Alexander Nix has accepted a summons from the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), and will appear in front of its committee on Wednesday 6 June.

The news was confirmed today by the DCMS committee in a statement, which also said that it would be reporting Dominic Cummings of Vote Leave to the House over his refusal to appear on May 22.

It is the latest development in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which saw the data of around 87m Facebook users worldwide collected by the firm.

Cambridge Analytica has commented that it pitched to Leave.EU, but did not do any work for them. The Leave campaign is being separately investigated for breaching campaign finance rules.

Damian Collins, chair of the DCMS Committee, said:

We are glad that Alexander Nix has accepted our summons. The committee will use the opportunity to address numerous inconsistencies in his previous evidence.

We are disappointed that Dominic Cummings has not responded positively to our requests for him to appear. His reasoning that he must delay giving evidence due to ongoing investigations simply does not hold up, considering that Alexander Nix, Jeff Silvester and others involved have agreed to cooperate with the committees investigations despite currently being subject to various investigations.

The committee has heard evidence from Cambridge Analytica whistle-blower Chris Wylie, and has been calling for representatives from the data consulting firm and Facebook to also come forward to speak in front of MPs.

In April, Facebook chief technical officer Mark Schroepfer gave evidence to MPs on the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but the government has also demanded that founder Mark Zuckerberg also come forward.

"We remain open to Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook giving evidence via video link or in person," the committee said in a tweet. "Him not appearing before us is not just a snub to the DCMS Committee but more importantly a snub to the UK and the millions of Facebook users in the UK who deserve answers."